Tool Tuesday- Steady Betty(s)

 

One of my most frequently used tools is finally failing on me. At first I was a little mad about it, but then I realized I'd been using the Steady Betty pressing board for almost 10 years now. Just about daily. But unfortunately there are big tears in the material that make the board so useful. 

There are tears on both sides of the board. I don't remember seeing these begin, all of a sudden they're just there. They don't affect the performance of the board as far as ironing goes. But I'm pretty sure I can't just glue these down as it would either not stick well enough, or melt the foam, or make a lump under the pressing surface that would translate to the fabrics I'm pressing. The tears are just going to get worse if they aren't repaired or secured.

Besides the two big tears, there's a lot of little pieces missing, especially on or near the edges. Maybe from using pins and/or scissors on and around the board?

Or...perhaps some of the holes were started by studio assistant claws (as pictured above in action)? That probably didn't help matters.

But I also noticed that the same thing is happening with my Betty Bands, which the studio assistants do not use. I think this grippy foam material is just not endlessly robust. It wears out with use (like most things), which is really not terribly surprising. 

So, Merry Christmas to me...I ended up replacing both the mat and the machine quilting bands. They arrived today with very cute Sharpie-art on the package.

 Hopefully I'll get ten more years out of these. It's so much lighter, and a bit bigger. The edges are a little strange, but it seems like very similar foam. Now to maybe make something out of the old mat. Perhaps I'll cover it with canvas and use it for a surface to have for pressing underneath the wool mat I have in my traveling kit.

 

And unfortunately I didn't notice the redesign of the Betty Bands on their website, they no longer have adjustable velcro, so they do not fit my hands very well at all. I will be doing some modifying to be able to use these!